


After Blackwood Mountain

by jalooloo



Series: One-Shots [1]
Category: Until Dawn (Video Game)
Genre: Aftermath, Angst, Comfort, F/M, Guilt, Love, Nightmares, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Recovery, Sleepy Cuddles, Survivor Guilt, Trauma, Wendigo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-17
Updated: 2018-03-17
Packaged: 2019-04-01 09:30:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 443
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13995399
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jalooloo/pseuds/jalooloo
Summary: Emily had the occasional fleeting dream, a momentary blessing between all the nightmares. She could no longer recognise her own reflection.





	After Blackwood Mountain

Emily Davis spends most of her evenings slumped over a toilet bowl. Cheek pressed against the cool porcelain, arms hanging limp at her side. She would shift her gaze rotationally between the two fluorescent eyes on the ceiling, judgmental and blinding, and her reflection in the water, dark hair and pale skin bleeding into each other like murky watercolours. Even though the colours were dull, and her features unrecognisable, she sought her own image. As if it was only a matter of time before she found herself staring back.

Every time she slunk down the side of the bowl and curled up against the harsh tiles, she awoke on velvet sheets. One of Matt’s heavy arms would be draped over her waist and the other, radiating heat under her cheek. His lips would be parted, crusted saliva on his chin, making the occasional whistle with each breath. She would pull him closer, desperate to feel his heartbeat against her own. She was always fully clothed, ashamed and frightened of her wendigo scars. She placed an open palm on the nape of Matt’s nape, relishing the burning sensation where their skin met. 

She had the occasional fleeting dream, a momentary blessing between all the nightmares. She would be running barefoot through a field after a light sun shower. Her muddy feet collecting pieces of loose grass and an occasional loose petal. Rays of light would _peekaboo!_ through migratory clouds. TThe youthful sunflowers turning towards the sunshine; Emily turning with them. She would close her eyes, absorbing the smell of petrichor and savouring the warmth on her face. She did not open her eyes, trying, instead, to fuse them. Trying to escape an inevitable sight.

Her eyes would be pried open by bony, leathery fingers. They spread her lids, causing her eyes to bulge, and froze them in place. She was at the bottom of the cliff, the broken danger sign to her right, Beth’s decapitated head to her left. They stared at the moon as it waned into nothingness, taking the stars with it. Darkness. It was then, Hannah would start singing, harmonising with the chilling winds swirling around the cavern.

Today, Matt shakes her awake before Hannah can plunge her teeth into Emily’s skin. She stares outside the window, observing the first stages of an orange dawn. Matt makes crashing noises as he scrambles through the kitchen. He makes a strong coffee, the potent scent welcomed by her nostrils before she returns to the bedroom. He hands it to her and stares, unblinkingly. “What a lovely song,” Emily says, searching for herself at the bottom of her mug. “What a lovely, lovely song.”

**Author's Note:**

> Check out my personal ([traumafood](http://traumafood.tumblr.com)) and writing ([sandpapertongue](http://sandpaper-tongue-writing.tumblr.com)) blog!
> 
> My Wattpad now has an original story - ["Starfish"](https://www.wattpad.com/story/156509132-starfish%20rel=)
> 
> _Before it gets better, it gets worse and worse and worse._
> 
> The volatile Regent brothers are the talk of a small Australian fishing town, Peachdale, in both life and death. A goshawk and a seahorse, the locals would call them. On good days, they were charming and intriguing; on bad days their behaviour was erratic and violent. Joey Regent, a tarot card reader and serial womanizer, frequently went "ghost" for weeks but always returned home when he was needed. Until the day that he didn't.
> 
> After a three month disapperance, Joey's remains washed up on the salt marshes. More specifically - his severed foot.
> 
> Six months later, Frankie Regent (the more aloof of the two) finds himself desperate to reconnect with the dead, and intent on avoiding the living. He hunts for the rest of Joey's remains in the entrails of diseased fish. An ailing Charlie Regent, concerned with his son's "psychotic" behaviour, sends Frankie to group trauma counselling. Bullshit.
> 
> During the course of their therapy sessions, Frankie develops an unhealthy obsession with fellow attendee - Sugar, who has buried her own demons and wants nothing to do with him.
> 
> STARFISH is a story about isolation, mortality, and the consequences of uncontrolled grief.
> 
> Updated every Friday/Saturday Australian time.


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